An original Second World War Photograph Album of British Major E. A. Heaton, R.A.S.C., documenting the Allied military campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, and the Italian peninsula, 1942-1943.
Photo album. This Second World War artifact is the extensive photograph album of British Major E.A. Heaton of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC), documenting the Allied military campaign in North Africa, Sicily, and the Italian peninsula.
The album measures 9.5 x 13 inches (24.13 x 33.02 cm). A homey, floral-patterned cloth binding belies the album’s contents: 295 original black and white photographs, many of them captioned, depicting not only expected images – aerial dogfights, sinking ships, armed troops, combat, destroyed military equipment and the like – but also unusual images, such as interrogation of suspected fascists, children born in a concentration camp, refugees, bread lines, P.O.W.s and even an Italian wedding. There also appears to be an original image of British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill. An additional three photographs are photos of photos; two of them feature Winston S. Churchill, while the other features prisoners of Ferramonti. Photograph sizes range between 2.25 x 3.5 inches (5.715 x 8.89 cm) and 4.25 x 6.25 inches (10.795 x 15.875 cm). Affixed to the rear pastedown are six late 1943 newspaper clippings and a handwritten “23 June 1945” menu for a “71 Sub Area A Mess Diner [sic]”. The album appears to be missing an initial leaf, and is definitely missing one photo. The covers show wear to the extremities, but are sound and overall condition is very good.
Accounts of the Second World War by its more famous participants are legion. Far less common are extensive, original first-hand photographic accounts from the front. British Major E.A. Heaton was in the 430 General Transport Convoy of the Royal Army Service Corps, a corps responsible for land and coastal transport, supply of food, water, fuel and domestic materials, as well as of military and technical equipment. A June 6 1945 issue of Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle lauds Heaton for having been “mentioned in despatches for his gallantry and initiative in Italy.” This album is not only a singular contemporary artifact, but also offers potentially unrecorded history; there seems to be little readily available material on the experience of the 430 General Transport Convey or the wartime role of the R.A.S.C. in North Africa and Italy.
The album’s narrative begins in North Africa at the end of 1942 in Algiers, showing the sleepy countryside, locals, and the market in La Calle. Those photographs are starkly juxtaposed against photographs of ships sinking off the coast and scenes of daily operations: improvised tents, tank transportation, field cooking, ammunition stacked on the roadside. From there, the album presses on to Tunisia, including images of troops from the Belgian Congo, German P.O.W.s, the 1st and 8th Armies entering Tunis. After the July departure from Sousse and images of the landing in Syracuse are images of the campaign for Sicily and Italy, including images of the liberation of the Ferramonti concentration camp in southern Italy, which imprisoned nearly 4,000 Jews.
Following images of “Sunday R.CC Church Services – Italian Division” is what appears to be an original image of British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill. His right hand holds a cigar, his left hand holds the right hand of a child, whose left hand is held by another be-suited (and notably tall) figure identified in the hand-written caption at the lower margin as “LORD KINNAIRN”. There are also several images of Field Marshal Harold Alexander, one of them with Marshal of the Air Force Arthur William Tedder, another of Alexander with both Tedder and Admiral Sir Henry Harwood. Seven successive images of “Belgian Congo Troops” stand out. Perhaps quietly underpinning the album is an uncaptioned image of an anonymous pair of feet, one of them standing on a poster of Mussolini that lies in the mud, partially obscured by a discarded tire. Item #006401
Price: $1,950.00